


houses, homes

by Ffwydriad



Series: present imperfect [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Homelessness, Multi, Pre-Poly, Trans Nott, Trans Yeza, that one's a bit less obvious but it's still there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:15:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22379311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ffwydriad/pseuds/Ffwydriad
Summary: "Hey," Nott says. "My boyfriend's getting an apartment, and he asked us to move in with him."Caleb's not a wizard, and Nott was never turned into a goblin, but they're still friends, with all the complications that means.
Relationships: Nott & Caleb Widogast, Nott/Caleb Widogast, Yeza Brenatto & Nott & Caleb Widogast, Yeza Brenatto/Nott, Yeza Brenatto/Nott/Caleb Widogast
Series: present imperfect [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1612090
Comments: 20
Kudos: 226





	1. Chapter 1

“My boyfriend’s getting an apartment, and he invited us to move in with him,” Nott says, completely out of the blue. They’re sitting in the computer lab of the library, where they’ll be until the library closes.

“I wasn’t aware you had a boyfriend,” he says, because he can’t think of what else to say.

“Neither was I,” Nott tells him.

* * *

The first time he meets Nott, they’re sitting in a jail cell. It isn’t the first time he’s been thrown into overnight, and it won’t be the last. 

Right now, it isn’t all that official an arrest. They haven’t printed him, or given him a mug shot. Right now, jail just means getting tossed into a glorified drunk tank for a night, where he gets to sleep somewhere not exposed to the elements, so he doesn’t mind, too much. There’s the pressing worry, each time, that it will be a fine he cannot pay, or a stay longer than a night, and they will put in official records that can be used to track him down.

But for now, he is sitting in a jail cell with a halfling girl named Nott, who’s been tossed in for similar reasons. She’s supiscious, sharp-eyed, and has a smile that shines too brightly for this place, and by the end of the night, when they’re tossed out onto the streets, they’ve struck a deal between them, to watch each others backs. 

He’s lost everything, in the world, and he can feel a kindred spirit in her. He can also tell she’s new at this, at living on the streets, and he’s going to keep her safe as best he can. 

* * *

Nott leaves homes during the third week of her senior year of highschool. 

Leaving home is an understatement. Nott is given an ultimatum, and she runs away from home before she can get kicked out, or worse. She runs away from Felderwin with everything she owns in a shitty ass backpack, and the only thing she leaves behind that matters is her various colllections, which she wishes she could bring, but she knows how to be practical, knows that she can’t take them with her if she’s gonna be living on the streets. 

She also leaves behind a coward, who for so long was the only person in that stupid town who meant anything at all. She could have asked - they could have run away together - no. She leaves Felderwin and starts hiking the way to Zadash.

* * *

“I don’t want to intrude,” Caleb tells her, in what is the most polite way to verbalize the ongoing panic attack he is currently experiencing. 

“He’s the one who suggested it,” she tells him. “Anything’s better than this.”

He’s been in worse places than living on the streets. The smile she gives him, after saying that, half an apologetic grimace, makes him think she has too. 

“If you’ll have me,” he says. She grabs his hand, and drags him down the street.”

* * *

Caleb works in retail, when he can. Most applications catch on quickly to the fact the addresses he gives them are shelters and such, but when they don’t, he gets work a fair amount of the time. When he is lucky, he is in shelving and such, where you are not expected to interact with people so much. When he is unlucky, he is a cashier. The cashier jobs, he manages, but he doesn’t tend to be kept on for more than a month. 

Most of his work is in coding projects he works on using library computers. He does not take many, and they are usually underpaid, but they are money. And, most importantly, the only people he has to interact with are through emails, and text based communication, that he can handle quite well. 

Nott works odd jobs. Under the counter, because she doesn’t really have the paperwork to do anything legit. Most of what she does, though, is just collecting. Mostly from diving through trash, sometimes from some quick lifts. She sells it all at pawn shops that are just shady enough to take her shit.

Caleb doesn’t ask, about what she does. Caleb doesn’t ask why she’s here in Zadash. Caleb doesn’t ask about why she’s called Nott, when no one in their right mind would ever name a kid that. 

She doesn’t ask about why he’s in Zadash, or about the scars on his arms, or about the disassociation. 

They just make sure that they’re okay, which is the only thing that matters.

* * *

_I don’t know if you even use this email any more but-I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for the way everything went down. You were right - I mean, you’re always right about everything, obviously, but you’re right that I was being a coward. I should’ve backed you up._

_I still don’t know if I could have done what you did, back then, but I guess it doesn’t really matter, because I’m doing it now. Kind of. I’ve been saving up a lot of money, and I’m about to buy an apartment, so it really isn’t the same at all._

_I love you so fucking much. I’ve missed you every single day. I know you probably don’t feel the same after everything I’ve done, but I hope I can make it up to you one day._

_Yeza._

_You’re a fucking bastard. Give me a discord or a tumblr or some shit so we can message eachother because I’m not doing this over e-mail._

_Of course I still love you, you stupid nerd._

_Nott_

* * *

“Have you ever been in love before?” Nott assks. 

“Once,” Caleb tells her.

“We were going to get married,” she says. “We knew that we were going to get married since middle school. I was so in love with him, but - I don’t think I still am.”

“I am not really the best at, uh, relationship advice,” Caleb says. “Do you dislike him, now?”

“No! And that’s the problem! I still love him! I just - I don’t know if I’m in love with him.” Nott buries her head in her hands. 

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand the difference,” Caleb tells her. 

“He’s - he’s kind, and he’s sweet, and he’s cute, and he was the only person who cared about me for a long time, and I love him, I do, but - I love you too.”

Caleb stares at her. “Are you in love with me?” he asks. 

“I think I might be,” she says. 

“Nott, schatz, I-” The words catch in his throat. “I think you should tell him.”

“I might be costing us an apartment,” she says, and the smile stretched across her face is strained, but comforting all the same.

“We haven’t needed an apartment yet,” he tells her. “But. ah. The girl who I was in love with, years ago - I wasn’t the only one who she was in love with. And, well - that part, at least, worked out fine.”

“I love you so much,” she says. 

“I love you too,” he says, and if it is a confession, it falls easier from his lips than he expected.

* * *

Caleb isn’t sure what he expected, from Nott’s boyfriend and his apartment. He thinks the apartment, at least, might be what he expected. It’s tiny, a hole in the wall, completely unfurnished, with cheap grey carpeting across everything but the kitchen.

Yeza Brenatto is a halfling, his long hair tied back in a pony tail. He’s wearing an oversized hoodie that matches Nott’s, and with him, the only things in the apartment, is a single suitcase that nearly reaches his shoulders, and a strange, lumpy duffle bag. 

“Please tell me that you didn’t shove a bunch of kitchen shit into a duffle bag,” Nott says, over any introductions, sliding her own bag to the floor. They share an awkward standoff, before she wraps an arm around his shoulders in a sideways hug.

“Not quite,” Yeza says, softly. “It’s your collections.”

She stares, wide-eyed, and runs over, opening the bag. “I thought for sure this all got thrown away!” she exclaims. “I can’t believe you were able to save any of this! I can’t believe you didn’t fucking tell me!”

“You didn’t ask,” Yeza says. “And I thought it would be a nice surprise?” He looks a little worried, but less and less with Nott’s wide grin. “You must be Caleb,” he says, turning around to face him.

“Uh, ja, and you are Yeza,” he replies. He doesn’t quite take his eyes off of Nott. “She collects more than bottle caps?” he asks. 

“I collect everything!” Nott exclaims.

“She collects everything,” Yeza says. “Set your stuff down, somewhere. We’re going to go buy a mattress.”

“A mattress?” Caleb asks, somewhat confused, but he sets his things down.

“I know carpeting is better than - but I still have money, so we’re getting some furniture. So. A mattress. We can figure everything else out from there.”

“You say _a_ mattress-”

“We’re not paying for heating when we could be cuddling!” Nott calls out. “Yeza only snores a little bit!”

“She is the one who snores,” Yeza tells Caleb. “But then, you already knew that, I guess?”

Everything about this seems like a bad idea, each moment an intrusion. But Yeza’s smile, close-lipped and calm and just as sunny as Nott’s, it is kind of infectious. He cannot help but smile, a little, back. 

“Ja, I did,” he says. “Let us go buy a mattress, then?”

“And maybe some food for dinner,” Yeza adds. “I think we deserve a little housewarming party, don’t you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> watch out, there's a decent chance i'm not done with this au. b/c i kind of love it a lot.
> 
> bonus doodle:  
> https://malaismere.tumblr.com/post/190370571640/ive-got-modern-au-calebvethyeza-on-the-brain


	2. Chapter 2

“I think I want to pick a new name,” Nott says. “Just. You know. I don’t think going by ‘not’ has really been helping my. You know. Emotional state.”

“Ja, but we are all kind of fucked up,” Caleb tells her. 

“I don’t want to be fucked up anymore,” Nott says.

“Do you have a name picked out?”

“I’m working on it,” she tells him. 

* * *

It takes a few months, but the apartment finally starts to look like a place that people live in, instead of a place where the three of them are crashing for just a night. 

There’s a lumpy ass couch, and a table and chairs that sometimes does get used for eating over the floor, and they’ve got a few shelves that are mostly full of various collections. A desktop computer, old but not slow, sits on the table, stealing the wifi from the apartment two floors up.

Yeza brings home food from his restaurant job. Nott brings home food she picked up dumpster diving, although more and more as the months go by, it shifts from food found in dumpsters to food bought for cheap at superstores.

The tension lingers, but it’s well past started slipping away by then. Caleb sits on the couch, typing away at code, Yeza sitting next to him reading, and Nott lying splayed across the both of them, tapping away at her DS and loudly swearing at the controller when it doesn’t do exactly as she’d like. 

This is starting to feel normal, and not just like a happy dream that will disappear by morning.

* * *

“If you could be doing anything,” Nott asks, “what would you be doing?”

“I’d be running a book store,” Caleb says. “Selling used books. Something small and cozy, with an apartment above it where we could live.” He says we, now, without a second thought, and it feels warm instead of scary.

“I’m already doing it,” Yeza says. “I’d be with you two.” 

“Nerd. The correct answer is being one of those famous youtube gamers because then you’d make money playing video games and what’s cooler than that? Nothing.”

“I think Yeza’s answer is the right one, liebling,” Caleb says. 

“I think Caleb’s answer is the one we should try,” Yeza says. “I wouldn’t mind living above a bookstore.”

“That’s because you’re both nerds,” Nott tells them. “Why the hell am I in love with you?”

* * *

To get a job, you need paperwork. Caleb is more than willing and able to forge paperwork on her behalf, something that neither of them bat an eye at, but he needs a name. 

She doesn’t want her official, real life job having name to be Nott. Because she’s not Nott anymore. She’s something. Someone. And that doesn’t make a good name. 

Hours of pouring through lists of names, and days upon days spent trying some out, she finally settles on one.

“Veth,” she says. 

“That’s a very nice name,” Caleb says, and writes it down. “What do you want your last name to be?”

* * *

The first few days after they get the couch, Caleb sleeps on it instead of the mattress. 

“I thought we agreed the bed was for all three of us,” Yeza says, on the third night that he makes a move to do the same. 

“Ja,” Caleb says, “in winter. To save on the heating. But I do not think we need to be worried about heating bills in this weather. And this is a very comfy couch.”

“Do you not like sleeping with us?” Yeza asks, and his face doesn’t flinch, even as it grows deep, beet red as he realizes exactly what he said. 

“You deserve space,” Caleb says. “To sleep. With your girlfriend.” His face is growing more than a bit that same shade of red. 

Yeza pauses, and then he starts laughing. “Caleb, I don’t need space,” he says. “And I really don’t need space from you. Look, I’m not going to make you share our bed - wow, that isn’t much better - but you can.”

Caleb sits there, for a few moments. “She is going to make me,” he says. 

“You don’t have to let her,” Yeza says.

“No, I will,” Caleb says. “I do-” the words get choked up, a little bit, in his throat. “I do love her, after all.”

* * *

“Brenatto,” Yeza says. 

“Brenatto?” she asks. “Where did you come up with that?”

“It’s an anagram,” Yeza tells her. “Veth Brenatto. Nott the Brave.”

She stares at him for a long few moments. “Two things. One. That is definitely what I’m going with, that’s so cute. Way better than just stealing Caleb’s last name, no offense Lebby.”

“None taken, liebling,” Caleb says. 

“And two,” she continues, “you’re such a fucking nerd. Seriously? Anagrams?”

By the end of the week, Veth Brenatto, with her shiny, brand new papers, starts looking for a job. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn't expect people to like this so much? so, uh, here's a bit more. 
> 
> <3


End file.
